Browse content similar to 24/11/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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A month ago, this programme revealed that the most senior lawyer | :00:00. | :00:07. | |
on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse | :00:08. | :00:10. | |
was alleged to have sexually assaulted a colleague, | :00:11. | :00:13. | |
but was allowed to resign with no investigation - | :00:14. | :00:15. | |
Tonight, a committee of MPs has passed its judgment on how | :00:16. | :00:22. | |
the inquiry handled the claim and it's damning. | :00:23. | :00:24. | |
how damaged is the inquiry and can it ever win back the trust of those | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
It's important to us because it's about us. | :00:30. | :00:31. | |
It's supposed to be about what happened to us. | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
So excluding us and dismissing us, and letting us see you treat other | :00:36. | :00:38. | |
victims really badly, is scaring us. | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
The Chair of the committee joins us live. | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
Rebel-held Aleppo no longer has a working operating hospital. | :00:48. | :00:49. | |
This brave little girl has been tweeting the world | :00:50. | :00:51. | |
We hear from a doctor in the city who is still desperately | :00:52. | :01:04. | |
Please, do anything to my children, anything to my wife. | :01:05. | :01:12. | |
Please, do anything to save them", and I can't do anything. | :01:13. | :01:15. | |
To boldly clean where no man has cleaned before. | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
The mess in space and the plan to spring clean the solar system. | :01:21. | :01:33. | |
Last month this programme reported on disturbing | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
developments inside the troubled Independent Inquiry | :01:39. | :01:40. | |
The inquiry's most senior lawyer was alleged to have sexually | :01:41. | :01:46. | |
assaulted a colleague, but was allowed to resign | :01:47. | :01:48. | |
The senior lawyer robustly denied the allegation and the inquiry | :01:49. | :01:55. | |
insisted it had not received any complaint about such an incident. | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
But tonight, a committee of MPs has sharply criticised the inquiry, | :01:59. | :02:01. | |
saying its response to the disclosure of the alleged sexual | :02:02. | :02:04. | |
assault, as well as allegations of bullying, was inadequate. | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
It would be a troubling charge for any organisation, | :02:09. | :02:11. | |
but it is especially so for one that was meant to be | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
investigating just such failings in other organisations. | :02:16. | :02:16. | |
So, can it now rebuild its credibility? | :02:17. | :02:19. | |
It's job is to shine light into dark corners of our past and present. But | :02:20. | :02:45. | |
tonight the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse was accused by | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
MPs of fail to properly investigate a claim of sexual assault under its | :02:50. | :02:55. | |
own roof. Tonight, Newsnight can reveal that the inquiry faces its | :02:56. | :02:59. | |
potentially most challenging criticism yet. It was an allegations | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
broadcast by Newsnight, four weeks ago. Tonight, the Home Affairs | :03:04. | :03:09. | |
Select Committee warned the inquiry's failure to proper | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
investigate itself was so serious that it threatened its able to judge | :03:13. | :03:18. | |
others. We do not believe that they have taken seriously enough its | :03:19. | :03:21. | |
responsibility to pursue allegations of bullying or disclosures of sexual | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
assault within the inquiry. One of the inquiries key purposes is to | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
assess other organisations procedures for dealing with | :03:32. | :03:34. | |
disclosures of sexual assault or abuses of power and institutional | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
reluctance to deal with difficult issues that might jeopardise their | :03:41. | :03:43. | |
reputation. We believe it's extremely important the inquiry can | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
show it treats these issues with appropriate rigour when they affect | :03:50. | :03:55. | |
IICSA itself. Professor Alexis Jay announced an independent review. She | :03:56. | :03:56. | |
said... I think there has been a lack of | :03:57. | :04:17. | |
transparency and, for an inquiry that at its heart is all about | :04:18. | :04:23. | |
undercovering conspiracies of silence and things being swept under | :04:24. | :04:29. | |
the carpet and by public bodies not properly investigating serious child | :04:30. | :04:32. | |
sex abuse, it's really vital that the inquiry itself is as upfront and | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
transparent as it can be. So these stories about who did what to whom | :04:38. | :04:44. | |
and when and how, within the inquiry, are not absolutely | :04:45. | :04:47. | |
strategic to the work of the inquiry itself, but are seriously damaging | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
in the way they've been gaining the headlines and overhanging the work | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
of that inquiry. It's a very serious and unhelpful distraction. | :04:57. | :04:59. | |
Newsnight's report in October revealed the inquiry had dropped an | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
investigation into its most senior lawyer, Ed Miliband. This, despite | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
being made aware of of a claim of sexual assault against him. A claim | :05:09. | :05:14. | |
Mr Ed Miliband strongly denies. -- Mr Emerson denies. He resigned. It | :05:15. | :05:17. | |
was agreed he would carry on working for the inquiry for a further two | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
months when MPs asked, answers didn't come. Why was Mr Emmerson | :05:22. | :05:30. | |
suspended? I cannot discuss anything to do with his circumstances. Of all | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
the criticism of the inquiry today, arguably the most came in a letter | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
sent by the MPs from the man who had been his deputy. Hue Davies QC is an | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
expert in safeguarding. He had never said anything publicly about the | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
inquiry and the inquiry had told him not to engage with the MPs. Mr | :05:51. | :05:56. | |
Davies ignored them and he accused the inquiry of a cover-up. | :05:57. | :06:31. | |
You can see how an organisation will say, look, things happen on our | :06:32. | :06:37. | |
premises. If the two individuals concerned are not going to make a | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
complaint, it's not going to go any further. On the other hand, an | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
organisation has these days an object ply gays to provide safe and | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
appropriate working conditions. It can't condone misbehaviour on its | :06:52. | :06:54. | |
premises. It should look into what happened to see whether its behaving | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
as it needs to to safeguard the concerns of people who work there. | :06:59. | :07:01. | |
It can't just cover the whole thing up because there hasn't been a | :07:02. | :07:03. | |
formal complaint. MPs agreed. The lack of preparedness to account | :07:04. | :07:21. | |
for something that's gone on, slightly hiding behind HR, keyses, | :07:22. | :07:24. | |
this is an internal matter we will deal with, I'm afraid aren't good | :07:25. | :07:28. | |
enough. Because of the publicity you are surrounding this, they do need | :07:29. | :07:33. | |
to account for what has gone on. The criticism didn't end there. The | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
inquiry accused of not yet doing enough to support the abused. | :07:38. | :07:49. | |
We want to see the inquiry, we don't want it to stop. We want it to | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
succeed, but we want it to be right. It's important to us because it's | :07:56. | :07:58. | |
about us. It's supposed to be about what happened to us. If you want our | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
faith and confidence, all you have to do is be straight and transparent | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
with us and do what you say you're going to do. So far you really | :08:07. | :08:11. | |
haven't done that. Release tonight letters between senior figures on | :08:12. | :08:14. | |
the inquiry and the Home Affairs Select Committee. Those letters show | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
an inquiry fighting for it is independence, resentful of elements | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
of the scrutiny MPs have put them under. The tonight's report has | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
prompted a personal apology from the Chair of the inquiry, to victims and | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
survivors of abuse. An apology for the anxiety caused by recent events. | :08:30. | :08:36. | |
The inquiry is battling to retain the support of survivors of abuse. | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
Bitter experience means many of them fear institutions will always tend | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
to sweep embarrassing issues under the carpet. That is why how the | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
inquiry handled their own matters so much. | :08:51. | :09:01. | |
We asked for a representative from the inquiry and from the Home | :09:02. | :09:04. | |
Office, but no-one was available. The Chair of the Home | :09:05. | :09:07. | |
Affairs Select Committee Peter Knox QC, from 3 | :09:08. | :09:09. | |
Hare Court Chambers worked as junior Rosie Cooper, ir first of all, what | :09:10. | :09:21. | |
shocked you the most? I think it was the complete lack of transparency | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
and both about the - how they handled allegations of bullying and | :09:28. | :09:34. | |
of sexual assault disclosures but also more widely the resistance to | :09:35. | :09:37. | |
any form of of scrutiny. They are an independent inquiry. Their work is | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
vital. We want this inquiry to be effective, but in order to do so, | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
given all of the problems they've had, there has to be much more | :09:46. | :09:47. | |
transparency about what's gone wrong. I want to talk about that in | :09:48. | :09:56. | |
a minute. Two Chairs so far. Lead counsel, junior counsel, seven | :09:57. | :09:59. | |
lawyers gone or going. The biggest survivor group has pulled out. | :10:00. | :10:03. | |
Today, as you said, defensive and slow, not responding to the | :10:04. | :10:06. | |
inquiries. How much worse could it actually get? Well, I think that's | :10:07. | :10:09. | |
the issue that they need to deal with. They need to address to get it | :10:10. | :10:15. | |
back on track. We set out some specific things that they need to do | :10:16. | :10:18. | |
as well as the the more general things they need to do in order to | :10:19. | :10:21. | |
deal with this otherwise they won't be able to build the confidence that | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
people need. What about the position of the Chair, Alexis Jay? I think | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
this is all got... Become too much focused on - can we solve everything | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
by changing Chairs each time. This is the fourth Chair. We have lost, | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
you know, Chairs along the way. If you just think this can be solved by | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
just changing the Chairs it's missing the point. We didn't look | :10:46. | :10:48. | |
specifically at the issue of the Chair, we looked at the wider issues | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
around the inquiry, around the way it has got this culture of | :10:53. | :10:56. | |
defensiveness it has built up and what are the things it needs to do | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
to turn it round. The question Alexis Jay is a question of | :11:01. | :11:03. | |
leadership. It is striking that after our report, when we approached | :11:04. | :11:09. | |
the inquiry, about these allegations of bullying and sexual assault, what | :11:10. | :11:12. | |
they said was flat out - no complaint. Not even disclosure. As | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
far as they were concerned they claimed they knew nothing about it? | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
The most disturbing thing was not what they said formally, it was the | :11:23. | :11:29. | |
report, the unatrickitied report to an inquiry source reported in the | :11:30. | :11:32. | |
newspaper being very, very dismissive of the whole thing. What | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
we said, they should have done more to distance themselves from that | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
source and that briefing as well. Do you think the inquiry was straight | :11:43. | :11:47. | |
with the Select Committee and the public about Ben Emmerson's | :11:48. | :11:49. | |
departure? We don't know what theishing ises were. Actually, in | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
the en, it's not our position as the committee to go into the detailed | :11:54. | :11:56. | |
allegations and what exactly happened. You have to hold it up to | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
the light, don't you? That should be done by somebody else. It will be | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
done by somebody else? Exactly. We called for an an external person to | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
come in and look at this case. That could provide more transparency that | :12:10. | :12:14. | |
they have followed procedures properly, they have actually taken | :12:15. | :12:17. | |
seriously their responsibility to deal with allegations of bullying. | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
Do you think that will be enough? Some of the big survivor groups are | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
not having anything to do with this inquiry until this is sorted out? | :12:27. | :12:29. | |
That is the responsibility on the inquiry to deal with this now. But I | :12:30. | :12:35. | |
think it'ses not just the inquiry into the bullying allegations. Can | :12:36. | :12:38. | |
you not have unresolved bullying allegations in an institution that | :12:39. | :12:47. | |
has a responsibility... Not why... It's kind... I wonder if, in the | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
end, it's going to be possible to put it back together again and get | :12:52. | :12:55. | |
the trust of people again? Who is going to scrutinise it? That's the | :12:56. | :12:58. | |
other interesting point. The inquiry has to be independent. It was set up | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
to be independent as part of establishing its credibility. You | :13:04. | :13:06. | |
wouldn't expect people to question the conclusions it comes to or the | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
truth finding it does, but there has to be some scrutiny of its approach, | :13:11. | :13:16. | |
of the processes and the approach it takes, particularly when so much has | :13:17. | :13:20. | |
gone wrong. That's the role that we have tried to play. And public | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
money? Yes. To hold it to an account that doesn't challenge the | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
independence of the content of their work and the work they do to | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
investigate, but does say - look, you have to be accountable to | :13:33. | :13:36. | |
someone. Do you want to see the inquiry split into a judicial | :13:37. | :13:39. | |
inquiry and a social services investigation? I think that is one | :13:40. | :13:43. | |
option. Because the inquiry is so broad, in scope, I think that's been | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
one of its challenges for each of the four Chairs, it has been a | :13:49. | :13:53. | |
challenge as to you how to focus it most effectively. We came across | :13:54. | :13:56. | |
this unresolved tension between those who want a judicial approach | :13:57. | :14:02. | |
to past events - With a judge? Not necessarily. But someone who can | :14:03. | :14:06. | |
approach that forensic. Get to the truth approach, it could be a judge, | :14:07. | :14:12. | |
it could be somebody else. Separately an approach to child | :14:13. | :14:14. | |
protection policies today where we know there are considerable | :14:15. | :14:17. | |
failures. Those are two different kinds of approaches to two different | :14:18. | :14:21. | |
sorts of things. There has been a tension and people worried that one | :14:22. | :14:24. | |
is going to dominate the other. That they are not it actually going to | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
get to the truth. We have to be absolutely clear about this, who | :14:30. | :14:32. | |
this is awful for is the survivors? Exactly. That is who it has to be | :14:33. | :14:37. | |
for to deal with the cover-ups that have never been challenged and the | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
abuse that scars people today. Law very much. -- thank you very much. | :14:42. | :14:50. | |
You are an experienced lawyer and were involved in the enquiry into | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
the death of David Kelly, why do you think this has ran into so much | :14:57. | :15:02. | |
trouble? There are two major problems, firstly the remit is | :15:03. | :15:05. | |
impossibly wide. A lawyer looks at that remit and then she must be | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
joking, it is to enquire into whether state institutions and | :15:11. | :15:12. | |
non-state institutions have required the duty of care to children under | :15:13. | :15:17. | |
protection without limit in time, it could go back 40, 50, 60 years. The | :15:18. | :15:22. | |
other problem is there is no time limit in which the report has to be | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
made. If you have a time limit of say coming back within a year then | :15:28. | :15:31. | |
the people conducting the inquiry can say we can only carry out this | :15:32. | :15:39. | |
wide remit within a certain sphere, the intention is that it's a white | :15:40. | :15:43. | |
sphere and that has caused a lot of problems. So far we have lost seven | :15:44. | :15:50. | |
lawyers, why is that? We have not been told the exact reasons, that is | :15:51. | :15:54. | |
part of the problem. But as a lawyer all I can say is it virtually | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
inconceivable that lawyers would resign from the inquiry. Really? I | :15:59. | :16:05. | |
think one thing which is very striking is that there is no | :16:06. | :16:08. | |
provision to work out what happens when you have this position. The | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
reason for that is it just doesn't happen, normally. That is the | :16:14. | :16:17. | |
problem which the home affairs committee came across, everyone | :16:18. | :16:21. | |
effectively clammed up and said I am sorry, I cannot tell you any more. | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
But on the question of, this is what lawyers are meant to do isn't it? | :16:27. | :16:32. | |
Uncover injustice. So therefore this is actually, it's a very big job for | :16:33. | :16:39. | |
lawyers who presumably don't walk away lightly because the very people | :16:40. | :16:41. | |
they are trying to help are inevitably let down. Once you take | :16:42. | :16:46. | |
on a brief that is it, you do it. You may not want to take it on and | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
if you have reasons for not doing so you can, but a case like this I can | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
understand why someone might say I cannot commit five years of my life | :16:55. | :16:57. | |
to doing it. But I think once you have you are duty bound to carry on | :16:58. | :17:00. | |
and it takes the most serious circumstances to drop out. Do you | :17:01. | :17:07. | |
think it is fixable? What do you think can be done? I don't know but | :17:08. | :17:12. | |
I guess the sensible way forward would be to terminate this inquiry | :17:13. | :17:15. | |
and start a new one on a narrower basis with a time limit with which | :17:16. | :17:18. | |
the report has to be made and I think I'm not the only lawyer who | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
said that. I have seen other people suggesting it as well. Thank you | :17:23. | :17:25. | |
both very much indeed. The UN announced today that its aid | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
team in Syria has received written approval from rebels in the besieged | :17:30. | :17:32. | |
opposition-held parts of the city of Aleppo to allow aid | :17:33. | :17:35. | |
in and evacuate the wounded. No food or medical supplies have | :17:36. | :17:37. | |
entered East Aleppo, which is home to some | :17:38. | :17:39. | |
275,000 people, since July. Bana Alabed is a seven-year-old girl | :17:40. | :17:41. | |
who's been tweeting from East Aleppo The heartbreaking pictures | :17:42. | :17:44. | |
and footage she's been sharing have gained her over 90,000 | :17:45. | :17:54. | |
Twitter followers. According to the UN, | :17:55. | :17:56. | |
by the end of October, government-led air strikes had | :17:57. | :18:04. | |
killed more than 700 citizens in the east of this city, | :18:05. | :18:06. | |
whilst rocket fire had left Before the war, travellers | :18:07. | :18:09. | |
to Aleppo would have read in their guidebooks | :18:10. | :18:16. | |
about a beautiful The street speaks a rhythm | :18:17. | :18:18. | |
of sounds, from horse-drawn carts over cobblestones to the more | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
frenetic pace of donkey riding couriers, still the fastest way | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
through the atmospheric labyrinthine souq, that's fragrant with olive | :18:29. | :18:31. | |
soap, exotic spices, roasting coffee Today, the city is almost razed | :18:32. | :18:34. | |
to the ground. After a three-week moratorium, | :18:35. | :18:45. | |
the assault on the area has resumed. The bombardment has left the streets | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
deserted and people trying The Syrian Observatory | :18:50. | :18:52. | |
for Human Rights says the strikes have been so massive that residents | :18:53. | :18:59. | |
are frightened to use The last operating hospital | :19:00. | :19:01. | |
in Eastern Aleppo has been destroyed, leaving up to 250,000 | :19:02. | :19:08. | |
residents of rebel-held districts without access | :19:09. | :19:11. | |
to surgery or specialist care. Earlier, I spoke to | :19:12. | :19:17. | |
a surgeon in the city, I asked him what the | :19:18. | :19:19. | |
situation was like there. Aleppo right now is completely under | :19:20. | :19:36. | |
siege and under shelling. There are more than 2000 shells in 24 hours, | :19:37. | :19:46. | |
including parachute rockets and shells and barrel bombs and a lot of | :19:47. | :19:54. | |
weapons actually. The whole situation, actually, it is a | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
holocaust here in Aleppo. You say it is a Holocaust, tell me the kind of | :19:59. | :20:03. | |
injuries you are seeing? As a surgeon I see all the casualties. | :20:04. | :20:17. | |
They are shelling, the patients are full of fragments and shrapnel from | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
head to toe. There are a lot of children and women, they are all | :20:23. | :20:31. | |
casualties, they are civilians. You have a lot of people but you are | :20:32. | :20:35. | |
seeing who need medical help but what can you actually do for them | :20:36. | :20:41. | |
now? Actually, as you know, all trauma centres and all trauma | :20:42. | :20:49. | |
hospitals have been destroyed completely. They are out of service. | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
Now we don't have an operation room so we can't do anything to the | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
patients. All patients and all casualties will be, will die. Or | :20:59. | :21:07. | |
they will die later, because we don't, we cannot do anything. All we | :21:08. | :21:18. | |
can do is such a small incision. Doctor, you send us pictures of the | :21:19. | :21:22. | |
most desperate injuries which were too desperate for us to show. From | :21:23. | :21:28. | |
your point of view as a doctor how frustrating is this that you have so | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
little we are able to do? The most difficult moment to me, to a | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
surgeon, I am a surgeon and I cannot do anything for these patients are | :21:39. | :21:47. | |
these casualties. The patient's family appeal me and they say, | :21:48. | :21:53. | |
please, doctor, please do anything for my children, anything to my | :21:54. | :22:00. | |
wife, do anything to save them and I cannot do anything. They cry and I | :22:01. | :22:06. | |
cried. Is there any chance you can get any of these children out? We | :22:07. | :22:14. | |
plead, the international community, the Security Council, the United | :22:15. | :22:17. | |
Nations, all the free world and Britain is one of them, England is | :22:18. | :22:24. | |
one of them, we plead, we appeal them, open humanitarian corridor and | :22:25. | :22:33. | |
entered humanitarian aid. And change the medical staff, medical staff are | :22:34. | :22:42. | |
so tired. We are exhausted. We need evacuation of wounded and injuries | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
and complicated cases. If there was a humanitarian corridor which got | :22:47. | :22:49. | |
some people out over a short time span would you go would you stay to | :22:50. | :22:57. | |
help the ones who are left behind? It's a big question, actually. I am | :22:58. | :23:03. | |
a surgeon. Health care worker here, to see these patients, to save these | :23:04. | :23:07. | |
people, I cannot go and leave all the civilian people here in Aleppo. | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
Do you accept this is the death of Aleppo, the death of the city you | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
are facing? We do not want to die here. There is not any fuel, any | :23:18. | :23:25. | |
electricity or food, that is not any baby milk. There is not any fruit, | :23:26. | :23:35. | |
there is no electricity generator. It's a horrible situation. A surgeon | :23:36. | :23:39. | |
in Aleppo. The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, | :23:40. | :23:42. | |
has spent the day defending Touring the studios this morning | :23:43. | :23:44. | |
with the message that he's taken the first steps to ensure the UK | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
economy is prepared for Brexit. He may have to go further to placate | :23:49. | :23:51. | |
families who are struggling This afternoon, the Institute | :23:52. | :23:54. | |
of Fiscal Studies published data suggesting the outlook for wages | :23:55. | :23:57. | |
is "dreadful" and that workers will earn less in real terms in 2021 | :23:58. | :23:59. | |
than they did in 2008. Also, it predicts, | :24:00. | :24:03. | |
the biggest losers will be... Yes - those lower income families | :24:04. | :24:06. | |
the government has been Our political editor, | :24:07. | :24:08. | |
Nick Watt, is here. Pretty dramatic sounding | :24:09. | :24:22. | |
intervention? Absolutely, by Paul Johnson, a former Treasury civil | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
servant, quite a cautious man using strong language, dreadful. They have | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
produced a graphic, look at this. If you look, let's get it up on screen, | :24:33. | :24:37. | |
there it is, look at that red line along the bottom, that is average | :24:38. | :24:40. | |
earnings and it is bumping along and that is showing what you are saying, | :24:41. | :24:48. | |
even by 2021 wages will not have recovered with a where in 2008 at | :24:49. | :24:51. | |
the beginning of the global financial grass. -- crash. We can | :24:52. | :25:00. | |
look at this any historical context, this has been produced by the | :25:01. | :25:04. | |
resolution foundation and look at the far right, look at that red | :25:05. | :25:10. | |
depth. Forecast at Autumn Statement 2016. Paul Johnson is saying we have | :25:11. | :25:14. | |
not seen this since the Second World War and he also makes the point that | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
some, although not all of this, has been caused by the consequences of | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
the Brexit referendum. So what do the government say? It is not great | :25:26. | :25:33. | |
for Theresa May, she said the Autumn Statement be aimed at those just | :25:34. | :25:36. | |
about managing and I think what this shows is that it is 2-1 to Philip | :25:37. | :25:40. | |
Hammond. He directed some measures towards those people but most of the | :25:41. | :25:44. | |
spending in the Autumn Statement was about boosting infrastructure, that | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
is where the megabucks went. If we look at that graphic again, Theresa | :25:49. | :25:52. | |
May has a point in one of the things she said today, we are doing some | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
measures, look at the national living wage, look at that blue line, | :25:58. | :26:02. | |
up it goes. It is denoted beer because it has to get to ?9 by 2020. | :26:03. | :26:09. | |
But I'm hearing an echo from the Treasury, a bit of a told you so in | :26:10. | :26:13. | |
the direction of the Brexit crowd but they are seeing it under their | :26:14. | :26:17. | |
breath because they know that the Eurosceptic Tories are turning their | :26:18. | :26:21. | |
fire at the moment on the experts, the officer budget responsibility, | :26:22. | :26:25. | |
and they wonder when it might be their turn. But let's end on a | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
health warning. Forecast? Sometimes they are wrong. Thank you very much | :26:31. | :26:32. | |
indeed. The issue of sales of Prosecco | :26:33. | :26:34. | |
was exercising Boris Johnson when he met the Italian Economy | :26:35. | :26:36. | |
Minister. Our Foreign Secretary opened that | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
Italy would want to grant Britain access to the EU because Italy | :26:42. | :26:43. | |
wouldn't want to lose out on sales of the fizz - | :26:44. | :26:46. | |
which we apparently drink Mr Calenda shot back that the UK | :26:47. | :26:49. | |
would sell fewer fish and chips. "I'll sell less Prosecco | :26:50. | :26:53. | |
to one country. The serious side to this is that | :26:54. | :26:56. | |
we're relying on countries to engage with the Foreign Secretary to sure | :26:57. | :27:01. | |
Brexit goes smoothly. We know that the Chancellor | :27:02. | :27:03. | |
and the Prime Minister seem to take great delight | :27:04. | :27:06. | |
in ripping Boris Johnson. Earlier this evening, | :27:07. | :27:08. | |
I spoke to the Mr Johnson's Italian counterpart, Paulo Gentiloni, | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
and asked about the future of Europe, populism and how | :27:14. | :27:15. | |
seriously he took our I started asking if he had | :27:16. | :27:26. | |
confidence in Britain's Brexit negotiation team. As far as I know | :27:27. | :27:37. | |
there is different roads in the UK Government. We are now in our | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
waiting position. I am sorry about that but this is the only thing that | :27:43. | :27:48. | |
we can do in the EU. There may be no formal negotiations but we know the | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had a conversation with your colleague, | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
the economy minister and Boris Johnson said Italy would grand | :27:58. | :28:00. | |
Britain access to the EU single market because you do not want to | :28:01. | :28:04. | |
lose per sec or imports. He is right isn't he? -- | :28:05. | :28:13. | |
Boris was joking a little on that subject but the issue is does the UK | :28:14. | :28:23. | |
want to remain in the single market? It is rather strange that if you | :28:24. | :28:27. | |
want to remain in the single market you vote for a leave in the | :28:28. | :28:34. | |
referendum. But if the UK wants to remain in the single market we are | :28:35. | :28:39. | |
happy. Obviously the single market has rules. Unfortunately there is no | :28:40. | :28:45. | |
cherry picking. Let's look at Italian politics, you're having a | :28:46. | :28:48. | |
referendum on the constitution and your government is one of the few | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
central left governments in the EU and by Minister Matteo Renzi is | :28:53. | :28:55. | |
trying to tap into the anti-politics going around just now, Donald Trump | :28:56. | :29:00. | |
talked about draining the swamp and Matteo Renzi says he is not going to | :29:01. | :29:05. | |
remain in the swamp. Why is he looking to Donald Trump for | :29:06. | :29:12. | |
direction and inspiration? Well, I assure you he is not looking to | :29:13. | :29:18. | |
Donald Trump as an inspiration. They use the same language. Obviously | :29:19. | :29:28. | |
not. Absolutely not. If you mean that the Prime Minister having a | :29:29. | :29:34. | |
language and values completely different and common to the European | :29:35. | :29:44. | |
centre-left has also a special characteristic to be a young and | :29:45. | :29:49. | |
antiestablishment leader, yes, you are right. And yet that would be | :29:50. | :29:53. | |
exactly what the populist movements are saying, that they are the ones | :29:54. | :29:58. | |
who are antiestablishment, you have your own 5-star movement, there is | :29:59. | :30:02. | |
popular is in Hungary and France and Sweden. For sure we have a populist | :30:03. | :30:10. | |
movement as we all have in Europe. I am rather confident that these | :30:11. | :30:19. | |
populist movement in Italy will not be considered a movement capable to | :30:20. | :30:27. | |
have, to offer an alternative as a government. | :30:28. | :30:30. | |
This is I think the specific strength of our position. | :30:31. | :30:40. | |
We are a government force, pro-Europe, very serious | :30:41. | :30:50. | |
in its reform and its position, but also, understanding | :30:51. | :30:54. | |
what our public opinion want to be changed in the establishment, | :30:55. | :30:57. | |
If the central left is not aware of the changes that are necessary | :30:58. | :31:02. | |
in the globalisation and in the establishment, | :31:03. | :31:07. | |
I think that they risk, the centre left risk | :31:08. | :31:09. | |
Do you fear for the future of Europe? | :31:10. | :31:17. | |
Yes, because I think that if Europe is not able to give answers, | :31:18. | :31:27. | |
especially to two main subjects, one is economic growth and the other | :31:28. | :31:29. | |
These two issues are so urgent that if there is no European answer, | :31:30. | :31:46. | |
I think that Europe is seriously risking. | :31:47. | :31:51. | |
But we have now also a chance, after Brexit, Brexit was also | :31:52. | :31:54. | |
But, finally, first the UK, who'll be next to want out? | :31:55. | :32:03. | |
I think that UK's already sufficient. | :32:04. | :32:10. | |
It's a very important country and I don't think | :32:11. | :32:14. | |
we will have someone next, at least I hope. | :32:15. | :32:20. | |
Paulo Gentiloni, thank you very much indeed. | :32:21. | :32:25. | |
If you've ever thought, "I'll get round to cleaning that up later", | :32:26. | :32:32. | |
then imagine the job that scientists are facing. | :32:33. | :32:34. | |
Space debris is at crisis point and there's so much of it | :32:35. | :32:39. | |
floating around the Earth, that future missions | :32:40. | :32:41. | |
So, with a new era of satellite technology ready to be launched, | :32:42. | :32:45. | |
Our science correspondent, Rebecca Morelle, has been looking | :32:46. | :32:48. | |
at how to give the Earth's orbit a spring clean. | :32:49. | :32:50. | |
It's incredible to think that we've been space bound | :32:51. | :32:53. | |
We've achieved amazing advances, made countless scientific | :32:54. | :33:02. | |
discoveries and made the world more connected than ever before. | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
But for every advance, we've left something behind - waste. | :33:08. | :33:13. | |
So if we want to keep on blasting off into orbit, | :33:14. | :33:15. | |
The space around our planet is so full of rubbish orbiting | :33:16. | :33:32. | |
at menacingly high speeds, it's seen as a threat to future missions. | :33:33. | :33:37. | |
Space debris is made up of lots of things, | :33:38. | :33:42. | |
but any space mission, any space craft, can | :33:43. | :33:44. | |
Many people would say that low Earth orbit has already exceeded the kind | :33:45. | :33:50. | |
of capacity that it has for space junk and that we'll see | :33:51. | :33:53. | |
I think the evidence for that is a bit uncertain, | :33:54. | :33:57. | |
but it's nonetheless something that we really need to take | :33:58. | :34:00. | |
Low Earth orbit is about to get even more crowded. | :34:01. | :34:08. | |
This is Clyde Space in Glasgow, one of several companies | :34:09. | :34:13. | |
spearheading a new satellite revolution, were size matters. | :34:14. | :34:17. | |
This little thing is the size that we're talking about, | :34:18. | :34:20. | |
it's 10 centimetres cubed, and it's transforming | :34:21. | :34:23. | |
They're not only designed to be small, but plentiful. | :34:24. | :34:31. | |
Cost effective missions will see hundreds of them in orbit, working | :34:32. | :34:33. | |
together in vast constellations and bringing great benefits. | :34:34. | :34:41. | |
CubeSats are going to help change our understanding | :34:42. | :34:43. | |
of the planet so we can take an image of the Earth every day, | :34:44. | :34:47. | |
but also data from moisture content of the atmosphere. | :34:48. | :34:50. | |
We'll be looking at the temperature of the oceans in a lot more detail. | :34:51. | :34:54. | |
This will give them much better understanding of actually what's | :34:55. | :34:57. | |
But there are concerns about CubeSats becoming | :34:58. | :35:03. | |
And with so many joining the market, from schools to the military, | :35:04. | :35:08. | |
it will be tricky to ensure that everyone's following the rules. | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
International space guidelines require that satellites should | :35:13. | :35:15. | |
If we build spacecraft, we don't want to shoot | :35:16. | :35:23. | |
ourselves in the foot by making space unusable. | :35:24. | :35:25. | |
Most CubeSats are launched into variable orbits | :35:26. | :35:27. | |
and they have an orbital life of about three to five | :35:28. | :35:30. | |
years which means, at their end of mission, | :35:31. | :35:32. | |
There are other spacecraft up there that are quite large | :35:33. | :35:37. | |
that are not functional, that could potentially cause a lot | :35:38. | :35:39. | |
of damage if they were to collide with another object. | :35:40. | :35:55. | |
We've been invading space for more than half a century, | :35:56. | :35:59. | |
now though the brightest minds are trying to work out how | :36:00. | :36:02. | |
we can clean up our act, but who's going to be the first big | :36:03. | :36:05. | |
player in this special mission and who's going to be willing | :36:06. | :36:07. | |
Let's first get the score on how bad our galactic | :36:08. | :36:13. | |
Scientists are currently tracking more than 22,000 | :36:14. | :36:19. | |
pieces of space junk, more than 10 centimetres wide, | :36:20. | :36:22. | |
that's 7,000 tonnes of trash to take out. | :36:23. | :36:25. | |
But blowing the stuff up would just create a bigger mess. | :36:26. | :36:29. | |
Instead, would-be cosmic cleaners need to bring pieces | :36:30. | :36:32. | |
out of orbit to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. | :36:33. | :36:38. | |
But first, you've got to catch them, otherwise... | :36:39. | :36:41. | |
At the University of Surrey, scientists are getting ready | :36:42. | :36:53. | |
for the world's most ambitious refuge collection. | :36:54. | :36:55. | |
So the remove debris mission is an exciting mission that we're | :36:56. | :36:57. | |
It's going to be one of the world's first missions to actually test | :36:58. | :37:02. | |
Fortunately though, there are animations. | :37:03. | :37:09. | |
This is what their spacecraft will look like. | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
First, it will jettison some junk made especially for this mission. | :37:14. | :37:17. | |
Then it will fire a net to see how easy it is to snag | :37:18. | :37:21. | |
The second experiment involves setting up a target to test | :37:22. | :37:27. | |
the accuracy of firing the harpoon in the weightless | :37:28. | :37:29. | |
Last up, to test future deorbiting tech and, to clean up after itself, | :37:30. | :37:38. | |
it will deploy a sail designed to upset its orbit and drag it down | :37:39. | :37:43. | |
The mission will cost 15 million euros and the idea is that each | :37:44. | :37:50. | |
future mission would target one key piece of space junk. | :37:51. | :37:53. | |
Well, the thing is, I like to think of space junk a bit | :37:54. | :38:03. | |
It's a problem that no-one really wants to pay for, | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
If you have $100 million satellite, it gets wiped out by a piece | :38:08. | :38:13. | |
of junk, then you start thinking - well, maybe I should have done some | :38:14. | :38:17. | |
of these missions to actually get rid of these pieces because it | :38:18. | :38:20. | |
would have been cheaper to begin with. | :38:21. | :38:22. | |
There's another consideration - a diplomatic one. | :38:23. | :38:25. | |
There are legal issues with capturing space junk. | :38:26. | :38:28. | |
You can't just go up there and grab anybody's junk. | :38:29. | :38:31. | |
For example, a lot of the items that are worthwhile getting rid | :38:32. | :38:35. | |
If we just went up there and try and grab those that would | :38:36. | :38:41. | |
effectively be stealing them, it would be theft or interfering | :38:42. | :38:44. | |
It's not only about reducing hazards for future missions, | :38:45. | :38:50. | |
but preventing collisions that may themselves generate more junk. | :38:51. | :38:54. | |
Look at the damage that can be caused by the millions of pieces | :38:55. | :38:57. | |
British astronaut, Tim Peake, took this photo while on board | :38:58. | :39:04. | |
the International Space Station, a chip in a window thought to be | :39:05. | :39:06. | |
caused by an object a few thousand times smaller than a millimetre. | :39:07. | :39:11. | |
The fear is that, in a few generations, low Earth orbit | :39:12. | :39:17. | |
Navigation, Earth observation, weather forecasting, communications, | :39:18. | :39:21. | |
all those things that we take for granted would be gone. | :39:22. | :39:25. | |
There's already been one or two collisions between objects in space | :39:26. | :39:28. | |
so far and there is a lot of objects up there. | :39:29. | :39:32. | |
Space is pretty big, but it's something we need to be | :39:33. | :39:36. | |
mindful of and I think we should be doing something about it | :39:37. | :39:39. | |
now rather than waiting for there to be a problem. | :39:40. | :39:42. | |
But efforts to make the world think collectively about our environment | :39:43. | :39:45. | |
can be particularly challenging, even more so when that | :39:46. | :39:48. | |
environment is hundreds of kilometers above the Earth. | :39:49. | :39:53. | |
We may not be able to take out space's trash quite | :39:54. | :39:56. | |
as literally as we'd like, but with a new era in satellite | :39:57. | :39:59. | |
technology looming, experts think it's high time | :40:00. | :40:03. | |
However, with so many decades of waste that's out of this world, | :40:04. | :40:08. | |
we won't be able to get the lid on all of it. | :40:09. | :40:20. | |
Now, just before we go, we are getting news of what could be a | :40:21. | :40:25. | |
significant story in France. At least one person is dead and armed | :40:26. | :40:31. | |
police are surrounding a retirement home for monks in the country after | :40:32. | :40:35. | |
a masked man burst in carrying a knife and a sawn-off shotgun. It's | :40:36. | :40:40. | |
thought 70 monks live at the home. At the moment there is no indication | :40:41. | :40:43. | |
that the incident is related to terrorism. There will be more though | :40:44. | :40:46. | |
on the BBC News Channel overnight. We leave you tonight | :40:47. | :40:52. | |
with the haunting work An exhibition of his photographs | :40:53. | :40:54. | |
of homeless people from around the UK and the world goes on show | :40:55. | :40:58. | |
at the M Saatchi Gallery in London As hundreds of people sleep out | :40:59. | :41:01. | |
on the streets of London and Bristol tonight, | :41:02. | :41:05. | |
as part of a campaign to end homelessness, it's a timely | :41:06. | :41:07. | |
reminder to appreciate that A lot of dry weather to come over | :41:08. | :42:00. | |
the next few days. Plenty of sunshine on offer through tomorrow | :42:01. | :42:03. | |
as well after a frosty start across many northern areas. A lot of cloud | :42:04. | :42:08. | |
across the far north of Scotland might produce the odd spot of rain. | :42:09. | :42:11. | |
. Pay cloud further south across | :42:12. | :42:12. |